Literary Analysis of Tom O'Brien's the Things They Carried
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- Date Submitted: 05/12/2016 02:36 AM
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7 May 2016
TIM O’BRIEN, “THE THINGS THEY CARRIED”:
A LITERARY ANALYSIS
When we read novels, a lot of us get wrapped up in the pseudo-reality created by the author and a number of people believe the stories so much that they may even form social stands, opinions and world views as a result of some work of fiction they read at some point in their lives. The mark of a true author is evidenced in how well they are able to employ literary devices as a means of creating a relatable reality for the readers; the stories do not have to be true. However, there are instances where authors have been able to narrate real life experiences as though they were works of fiction, making it more enjoyable for readers and leading them to see the light of realities that they would otherwise want to shy away from. This technique is usually employed for subjects that are seen as touchy such as physical and sexual abuse, conspiracy theories (in some cases) and war. Usually such books generate a lot of questions with respect to how much “doctoring of facts”, use of imagination and other tools to make events that truly happened into works of fiction, is actually permissible. The Novel “The Things They Carried” by Tim O’Brien is a classical fiction based on war that has been trailed by a number of questions and one that will be analyzed in this paper is: Is Tom O’Brien’s novel merely another work of fiction rife with imaginations that have no place in actual happenings and human experiences?
In “THE THINGS THEY CARRIED,” The series of events put together by Tim O’Brien show that fiction is more often than not a veritable tool in making readers come to terms with salient and even stark realities, in this case, the war. Tim O’Brien uses War to define the main character Jimmy Cross’ feelings as a leader, a lover and above all as a human being and being in a war situation all the decisions he took as a leader.
In "Unraveling the Deeper Meaning": Exile and the Embodied Poetics of...
TIM O’BRIEN, “THE THINGS THEY CARRIED”:
A LITERARY ANALYSIS
When we read novels, a lot of us get wrapped up in the pseudo-reality created by the author and a number of people believe the stories so much that they may even form social stands, opinions and world views as a result of some work of fiction they read at some point in their lives. The mark of a true author is evidenced in how well they are able to employ literary devices as a means of creating a relatable reality for the readers; the stories do not have to be true. However, there are instances where authors have been able to narrate real life experiences as though they were works of fiction, making it more enjoyable for readers and leading them to see the light of realities that they would otherwise want to shy away from. This technique is usually employed for subjects that are seen as touchy such as physical and sexual abuse, conspiracy theories (in some cases) and war. Usually such books generate a lot of questions with respect to how much “doctoring of facts”, use of imagination and other tools to make events that truly happened into works of fiction, is actually permissible. The Novel “The Things They Carried” by Tim O’Brien is a classical fiction based on war that has been trailed by a number of questions and one that will be analyzed in this paper is: Is Tom O’Brien’s novel merely another work of fiction rife with imaginations that have no place in actual happenings and human experiences?
In “THE THINGS THEY CARRIED,” The series of events put together by Tim O’Brien show that fiction is more often than not a veritable tool in making readers come to terms with salient and even stark realities, in this case, the war. Tim O’Brien uses War to define the main character Jimmy Cross’ feelings as a leader, a lover and above all as a human being and being in a war situation all the decisions he took as a leader.
In "Unraveling the Deeper Meaning": Exile and the Embodied Poetics of...